Since the advent of the cavalry, the situation on the ancient battlefield has changed, and this extremely lethal and mobile class of troops has been frightening everywhere it goes. This has been the case from the era of cold weapons to the era of hot weapons.
Before the advent of tanks, no other class of soldiers had ever created the glory of cavalry, and no animal had been so close to human warfare like horses, and to this day, "soldiers and horses" is synonymous with the army.
With the development of industrial technology, since the First World War, all kinds of new equipment have emerged in an endless stream, especially the emergence of heavy equipment such as tanks, so that the cavalry has lost the advantage of power and mobility, and can no longer gallop on the battlefield, and gradually withdraws from the stage of history.
As a derivative of the cavalry, the war horse naturally disappeared from people's sight. It is said that after the disbandment of the cavalry unit, the warriors can be added to other classes, but what about the war horses? Where did these army's closest comrades end up?
I. The "Iron Horse" in iron horse Jingo
Cavalry, as the name suggests, is a class of soldiers that fight on horses, and according to existing archaeological data, the history of human horse breeding is very long, dating back to more than 5,000 years ago: in the Erlitou site in China, a large number of horse skeletons have been found.
However, before the Spring and Autumn Period, the horses of the Central Plains countries were usually only used to pull carts, not to ride, and there was no such thing as war horses. On the contrary, the surrounding barbarian tribes, because of the need for survival, mastered the art of riding horses earlier and used horses in battle.
It was also in the battle with the surrounding barbarian tribes that the Zhao state in the north saw the powerful power of the combination of warriors and horses, so it began to promote "Hufu riding and shooting" and used this to dominate the Central Plains.
This practice of the Zhao state was highly valued by the Central Plains countries, and similar armies were set up in their own armies, and cavalry began to appear in the Chinese army as an independent army.
The cavalry has since begun the history of thousands of years of traversing the land of China, and the importance of war horses has been fully valued during this period. Especially since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty has often faced the invasion of northern nomads, these peoples who grow on horseback, each of them is a natural warrior, their cavalry is very strong, the Central Plains army can not compete with it.
In the long battle, the Central Plains Dynasty summed up the lessons learned, believing that a very important reason why the Central Plains cavalry was inferior to the cavalry of these nomadic people was that the quality of the war horses was not good. Therefore, the Central Plains Dynasty gradually established a complete set of "official horse system", set up special horse administrative institutions at the central and local levels, and even forced farmers to raise horses for military supplies.
During this period, soldiers and war horses served a long time, basically entering the military camp and being a military member for life. In particular, in ancient times, war horses were in short supply, and as long as a horse was delivered to the army, unless it was killed in battle, there was basically no day of retirement. These horses served the army from birth to death and were the closest companions of soldiers.
Second, the eliminated cavalry
Cavalry on horseback influenced the course of history, and in history, the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty were destroyed by nomadic peoples, because cavalry was inferior to others, and war horses were inferior to others. Therefore, in the era of cold weapons, that regime can have a strong cavalry, which basically means that it has the qualification to compete for the supremacy of the world. But cavalry is not always invincible, and war horses are not irreplaceable.
After the British Industrial Revolution, thermal weapons gradually replaced cold weapons as the mainstream of military equipment, especially armored vehicles, tanks and other heavy mobile equipment. The position of the cavalry suffered a major blow. For example, at the Battle of Bali Bridge, 20,000 Mongol cavalry were beaten to death by the British armed with muskets, which was seen as the beginning of the gradual withdrawal of cavalry from the stage of history.
However, due to the relatively backward development of China, the lack of armored troops and artillery, from the Opium War until the founding of New China, the Chinese army still retained a large number of cavalry formations for a long time. In particular, the cavalry units of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army still showed great power on the anti-Japanese battlefield.
In the later period of the Liberation War, the People's Liberation Army had a formation of 12 cavalry divisions. These cavalry units played a huge role in the Battles of Changchun and Siping.
However, with the continuous advancement of modernization, after the 1980s, China also began to reduce the number of cavalry on a large scale, and the cavalry that was once the main force of the army has basically disappeared.
3. The fate of the warhorses
War horses were once the closest comrades-in-arms of soldiers, once made great contributions to army combat, and once the strength of cavalry, which also made the cause of horse breeding in various places very developed. Where did these horses, who served in the army, or the ponies who worked hard to become horses in the army's horse farm, return after the disbandment of the cavalry unit?
Horses should have been retired after 5 to 10 years of service, and the force has extensive experience in handling these horses, and a large proportion of these horses will continue to play their role.
First of all, in China's northern borders, such as Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and other places, when winter comes, there is heavy snow, and modern means of transportation such as cars cannot walk at all, and soldiers at this time can only rely on horseback to patrol the border.
Therefore, the troops on the front line of the border still retain a considerable part of the presence of warhorses. Although these horses no longer shoulder the task of charging on the battlefield, they are still with the army, jointly guarding the country, and playing the role of a "soldier".
Secondly, a part of the relatively poor endurance of the warhorse, after the disbandment of the cavalry force, was handed over by the army to the locality, which was handled by the locality, and was usually used to transport supplies. In some remote mountain villages, in some areas where the road is difficult to navigate, these former war horses have become good helpers for the local people, helping them transport goods and reduce their burdens.
In addition, there were some wounded warhorses, because they had made great achievements in battle, and they were not injured and were not suitable for handing over to the localities, so the army carried out the final maintenance work. These horses are cared for by special personnel, the wounds and illnesses will be restored, and the next steps will be made only after the recovery of these horses is guaranteed.
A portion of the horses remained in the few remaining cavalry units, all but a few of which were in the border areas, and the rest were used to show the cavalry style. The appearance of these horses is very strong, and they no longer perform combat tasks, but undertake ornamental tasks.
Therefore, after the modernization of the army, the cavalry formation in the army was gone, and the war horses withdrew from the battlefield. But in any case, these war horses have made great contributions to the country, and they will no longer be ruthlessly killed or martyred as in ancient times, but will be handled very well by the army to ensure that these war horses can play their residual heat and enjoy their old age in peace.
Text/Leyu
Reference: Chinese Cavalry in History, Qianli